A new study presented in Barcelona at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology showed as the combination of a low dose of Xarelto  and aspirin cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

These results could lead doctors to use Johnson & Johnson and Bayer’s blood thinner Xarelto to prevent heart attacks in some patients, leading to a significant sales boost as well convinced Credit Suisse analyst Divan Vamil to predict that a successful result could increase sales of the drug by $1.5 billion in the U.S. alone.

The results showed significantly reduced the risk of major cardiovascular (CV) events defined as CV death, heart attack or stroke by 24% in patients with stable coronary and/or peripheral artery disease (CAD/PAD) compared to aspirin alone. This finding was driven by a robust 42% reduction in any stroke and 22% reduction in CV death.

The drug could potentially be used on 30 million additional patients in its largest national markets, once regulators give their go-ahead for the atherosclerosis indication, Bayer said. That would come on top of a population of roughly 25 million patients in atrial fibrillation.

The pill generated 2.9 billion euros in 2016 sales for Bayer, up 30 percent from a year earlier, while partner J&J, which gets a majority of U.S. revenues, booked sales of $2.3 billion, up 23 percent.

Read further: Forbes, Reuters